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QR improves infrastructure for the future

<p>Queensland Rail began its largest upgrade project yesterday, worth $500m, designed to increase the capacity of its Jilalan rail yard by 40%.</p> <p>The Jilalan rail yard is a vital piece of infrastructure in the Bowen Basin, servicing the Goonyella coal network, which feeds Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (DBCT) and Hay Point.</p> <p>QR chief executive Lance Hockridge said the upgrades would greatly increase the throughput of the rail system.</p> <p>&#8220The upgrade will increase the capacity of the yard from 92m tonnes a year to 130m tonnes a year,&#8221 Mr Hockridge said.</p> <p>The expansion of the yard would include two new bypass tracks with a provision for a third, two provisioning tracks, a wagon maintenance facility and modifications to the existing yard and tracks, he said.</p> <p>&#8220This is about meeting the future needs of our customers as the massive growth in export demand for coal continues,&#8221 he said.</p> <p>QR has been criticised in the past for not meeting the demands of its coal customers and keeping in step with terminal upgrades.</p> <p>DBCT completed the first phase of its three-stage expansion 7x project earlier in the year and is set to complete 45% of its 2&#473 phase by December, bringing its throughput to 72m tonnes a year.</p> <p>But DBCT said the balance of the upgrade would not be completed until next March, a three-month delay.</p> <p>Mr Hockridge said bulldozers were preparing to move more than 1m cu m of earth.</p> <p>&#8220More than 300 people will be working on the project, the scale of which exceeds anything previously seen in the area,&#8221 he said.</p> <p>QR said the work would be completed by December 2009.</p> <br />